This invention relates to a dental hygiene package and more particularly to one that will dispense dental floss carrying a dental medicament.
Fluoride therapy for the prevention of dental caries in the dental office and in the home is well known. In the dental office, the patient's teeth are treated with a topical fluoride or phosphatefluoride solution or viscous gel for the prevention of dental caries, as described in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,337,412. Also, fluoride tablets or liquids are prescribed for systemic treatment for control of caries, as described in Elbreder and Ross U.S. Pat. No. 2,967,131. In the home, fluorides have been included in drinking water and toothpaste. Also, mouth rinses and topical gels containing the fluoride ion are available for home therapy.
It is also generally known that there is a high incidence of dental caries and other dental problems which occur at the relatively inaccessible interproximal areas of the teeth. Conventional brushing of the teeth does not effectively reach these regions and mouth rinses and home therapy gels do not always reach those areas. Therefore, the regular and routine use of dental floss for dental prophylaxic and hygiene is widely advocated by the dental profession.
In order to introduce fluoride ions into these interproximal regions, it has been proposed to provide dental floss impregnated with a semisolid dressing in which the fluoride is insoluble and suspended. This impregnated floss as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,830,246 is then dried for subsequent use. This arrangement, however, entails the expense and difficulties inherent in providing the apparatus and carrying out the processing required in impregnating the floss with the fluoride-containing dressing, drying the impregnated floss and then further processing it into a form for ultimate use and in insuring the convenient supply of desired lengths of the dried treated floss with a properly controlled concentration and evenly distributed amounts of the fluoride medicament.